ABC launches new kids channel

Australia's first free-to-air channel just for children, ABC3, was launched in Sydney this evening.

ABC3 is aimed at six to 15 year olds and can be viewed on digital channel 23 from 6:00am to 9:00pm each day.

The channel will also offer content online.

ABC director of television Kim Dalton says ABC3 will feature a range of genres including drama, music, quiz shows, news and sport.

"I'm very excited about the presenters that we've recruited," Mr Dalton said.

"We've run a Me on 3 campaign and we've had in excess of 4,000 applications."

"We've sifted through all those and we've selected a group of five or six really bright, young kids who are going to be the face of this channel."

ABC chairman Maurice Newman says the new channel will transform the nation's digital broadcasting landscape and continue the ABC's tradition of being the channel of choice for kids.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd flicked the switch on the new channel at 6:00pm at the ABC's Ultimo studios in Sydney.

Mr Rudd says children's television is a key way of fostering creativity in children.

"It excites their ability to begin to look beyond the practical and the physical, and to begin to play in their imagination about what sort of person they might become, or what sort of community or country one day they might build," he said.

"Encouraging a child's imagination to roam and run freely is part and parcel of creating a creative Australia."